AGILE hunts gravitational waves counterparts

After the breakthrough discovery of gravitational waves by the LIGO-Virgo collaboration in 2015, the quest for electromagnetic counterparts to extreme gravitational events is now open. We report the results of an extensive search through AGILE data for a high-energy counterpart to the first gravitational wave event ever detected: GW150914. The Italian Space Agency satellite AGILE devoted to gamma-ray astrophysics is operating nominally since its launch on April 23, 2007, and it is continuosly monitoring the sky in a spinning observation mode. With the potential of covering ∼80% of the entire sky with its gamma-ray instrument more than 100 times a day, AGILE is currently at the forefront in the hunt for electromagnetic counterparts of gravitational waves. Even though a gamma-ray counterpart of the GW150914 event was not detected, the prospects for future AGILE observations of GW sources are shown to be very promising